A couple of days ago, we watched ‘Red One.’ Confession: I really like corny Christmas movies. And every Christmas, I like to watch some of my old favourites, and try out the odd new one. (Even if my family rolls their eyes.)

I enjoyed it. Was it corny? Of course it was! It’s the archetypal Christmas movie, which has to end on a (spoiler alert) happy note. Now, if you don’t want more spoilers, then don’t read on.

Red One focuses on Cal, who’s Santa’s security chief and personal bodyguard. He’s retiring because he can’t do the adults any more. It’s quite an interesting concept. He loves Santa, he loves Christmas, and he’s genuinely attached to everyone he works with. But he’s been alive for a very, very, long time, and adults behaving badly have gotten to him. Santa reminds him to ‘see the child in everyone’ but he simply can’t any longer.

It also focuses on Jack O’Malley, who begins the movie as a completely – I want to say amoral, but it’s not the right word – callous, maybe, hacker, who ‘does jobs’ for whomever pays, and provides key information about Santa’s whereabouts to the evil nemesis, which eventually leads to Santa’s kidnapping.

Suffice it to say, there’s back history, complications, chaos, fun stuff, a focus on the type of bickies Santa likes (not macaroons), and of course, the obligatory redemption arc for Jack O’Malley.

In the end, it all wraps up nicely and leaves you feeling happy. (Which is why I genuinely like Christmas movies.)

I was thinking while I watched it, how closely in some ways, it mirrors the actual (for me because of my personal beliefs), Christmas story. While I’m well aware that not everyone believes the way I do, I was fascinated to see a movie mirror parts of the Christian belief system, while being absolute and complete fantasy.

The key point is not only the redemption arc, where Jack O’Malley makes a conscious decision to be a better father and human being, and therefore escapes what is effectively ‘a hell,’ but also the bit where Santa Claus looks at every adult and sees the child they once were, which again mirrors my own belief system – the concept that God looks on the heart, not the exterior, and that no-one is ever to far away from him to be brought closer into relationship with him.

Interestingly, Jack O’Malley is portrayed as not simply amoral, but the kind of bloke who’d steal a lollipop from a baby (in this case literally), which also says a lot about what we humans see as ‘bad stuff.’ Some adults in the film demonstrate selfishness, self centredness, and irrational anger as well, but Jack O’Malley demonstrates theft, destruction of property, and cynicism. I found it a fascinating look at current societal values – where the importance of ‘me’ and ‘my stuff’ often trumps the importance of others.

In this story, Santa, who spends most of the story comatose after his kidnapping, is effectively the ‘God figure’ whose views on human beings (their inner child continuing to exist) is the reason that people are able to change and eventually be redeemed into their better selves.

I find it fascinating that we look so hard for redemption, but ignore the child in the manger, who would one day become the Christ on the Cross sent to the world to provide humanity as a whole with their own redemption arc.

I do understand the some of us Christians have made it very hard to see that very simple story through the lens of our chaotic humanity, which often seems – and is – hypocritical. Our own humanity sometimes overcomes the message – we cover it up with bad behaviour, and things that Jesus would never have done or condoned, and so we obscure the truth of the message, which is anyone can approach God at anytime.

I am reminded that it was not to the great that the birth of Jesus was announced, but to those who were not great in the eyes of their fellow men.

Luke 2: 8-14

⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
    and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

Merry Christmas to you and all of your family from me and mine.